Guidewires are used for guiding medical devices of various types, such as sinuplasty balloons, into a patient body for applying some medical procedure. Various guidewire configurations are known in the art.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,182,432, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a guidewire for use in ear, nose and throat procedures. The guidewire may include an elongate core wire having a proximal region and a distal region. The distal region of the core wire may include a flattened portion adapted to provide preferential flexure along at least one axis of the wire. The distal region of the core wire may include a tip portion distal of the flattened portion, wherein at least one cross-sectional dimension of the tip portion is greater than at least one cross-sectional dimension of the flattened portion. The guidewire may include an outer coil disposed around at least a portion of the elongate core wire.
European Patent EP1315460, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes an elongate tubular body that extends between a rotatable cutter and a control. The cutter is connected to the control with a rotatable element. Vacuum is applied through an annular passage defined between the tubular body and the rotatable element. The tubular body has a sufficiently small outside diameter, and sufficient kink resistance and pushability to navigate through the internal carotid artery and at least into the M3 segment of the middle cerebral artery.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0007842, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes apparatus, including a guidewire having a distal end, which is configured to be inserted into proximity with a nasal sinus of a patient, the guidewire having a lumen. The apparatus also includes an optic fiber, traversing the lumen, configured to illuminate the distal end, and a coil, wound around the optic fiber and located within the lumen at the distal end, configured to generate a signal in response to a magnetic field interacting with the coil. A processor is configured to receive the signal and to evaluate a location of the distal end in response to the signal.